Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Being a WIS is difficult. Being a mendicant WIS is even harder. Imagine being a drug abuser without the money to buy drugs. Fine, I can't really say that's how it would feel because Ive never done it, but if I were to imagine it, thats what I would compare it too.

Because yes, I admit it. I am a mendicant WIS.

Being a mendicant WIS with a wishlist that costs more than my house and car combined, I sometimes just have to pacify my horological addition by getting myself a (more affordable) watch that's not on my my grail list. These watches are what I call my grail killers because every centavo I spent on them makes me a centavo farther away from my grail watches.

Usually the urge to buy a grail killer comes with one or a multiple of the following excuses:

It was on sale/It had a really good price
The piece is so rare you couldnt pass up the chance
This is one complication I wanted, but is not on my grailI can easily sell this anyway

So far, here are my grail killers. Dont get me wrong, I love these watches and I'll probably keep a lot of them anyway but had i not gotten them I could have been a couple of dollars closer to some of my grails.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Last Thursday my wife and I went to Shangri-La to attend my sister-in-law's 30th birthday dinner. We arrived about half an hour early and as any watch idiot would do, I quickly excused myself and headed off to Lucerne.

Lucerne is probably the single biggest carrier of luxury watch brands in the Philippines. Patek Philippe, A. Lange & Söhne, AP, Panerai, Rolex, IWC, JLC, Zenith, Omega and many others are carried by Lucerne. It's the closest thing to horological heaven here in the Philippines.

I was only able to browse the Zenith and JLC cases and I have to say that for that night, my personal eye candy was the Zenith El Primero Rattrapante. Unfortunately I was not able to take a wrist shot but boy was that piece a real piece of work. Pictures over the net tend to give it a much sportier look, but in person in exudes elegance and sophistication.

I promise to take a wristshot next time. Even better check it out for yourself at Lucerne, Shangri-La. List price is PhP670k.